Latest news with #Invocation
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
Aztec sculpture from Mission District finds permanent home in Portola
A great winged totem representing an Aztec warrior landed in the Portola district Thursday afternoon, when it was installed as a permanent fixture guarding the Palega Recreation Center, a few blocks west of San Bruno Avenue. The wire mesh sculpture depicts a Mesoamerican eagle warrior and was titled 'Invocation' by its creator, the late Mission District artist Pepe Ozan. It was commissioned by the Civic Art Collection in 2001 and has been in storage since 2023 when a wind-blown eucalyptus fell on it at its previous location alongside the Highway 101 overpass near Cesar Chavez Street. The piece, which stands 9 feet tall with an 8-foot wingspan and weighs 245 pounds, was bent forward and its legs buckled, requiring surgery. 'It was fully conserved and repainted,' said Grace Weiss, project manager for the Civic Art Collection. 'It probably hasn't looked this good since it was installed.' 'Invocation' replaces 'Zephyros,' a kinetic sculpture that had to be removed from the same location due to mechanical failure. A survey by the Arts Commission conducted last summer garnered 75% approval to put the dynamic steel figure at the intersection where pathways connect the two park entrances, at Felton and Silliman streets, with the ball fields and the gym structure. It cost the Arts Commission $90,000 to renovate and re-install 'Invocation,' which arrived on site shrouded in white and wrapped in tape. It took most of a day for a crew from Atthowe Fine Art Services to get it installed atop a concrete plinth that is set in the ground and adds two feet to its height. The rebar at the base of the sculpture had to drop into holes drilled into the plinth at a precise angle, which took several tries and adjustments down to the inch. Patiently watching the process while awaiting the unwrapping was Kelly Torres, who grew up in the Portola district and still lives there. 'This is the appropriate place for it and we've been waiting,' said Torres, who recalled 'Invocation' from driving by its old perch at Cesar Chavez and Bayshore Boulevard, where it was for nearly 20 years. 'It's exciting because it stirs emotion in people. That's what art does. It's a good thing.'
CBS News
15-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Federal judge in Denver rules against Trump administration on deportations of men held by ICE in Aurora
A federal judge in Denver has ruled in favor of several immigrants' rights organizations and against the Trump administration concerning the administration's efforts to deport several men being held at a detention center in Aurora. The ACLU and several other organizations sued President Trump to stop some deportations out of Colorado. Monday night, U.S. District Judge for the District of Colorado Charlotte Sweeney ruled in favor of those groups, temporarily blocking any deportation under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 . "The order issued by the Court at ECF No. 10 prohibits the removal from this jurisdiction of Petitioners and the class they propose to represent; namely, 'All noncitizens in custody in the District of Colorado who were, are, or will be subject to the March 2025 Presidential Proclamation entitled Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of the United States by Tren de Aragua and/or its implementation,'" Sweeney wrote. This order will remain in effect through at least April 21, when Sweeney will issue another order. The suit stems from an order issued by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which ruled that immigrants facing deportation are entitled to due process rights. That order came after the Trump administration invoked a seldom-used wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in an effort to deport people it claims are part of a criminal gang from Venezuela, Tren de Aragua . The suit said that people being held at the Aurora ICE Processing Center are being held without charge and being denied due process or any way to fight the deportation proceedings in any court. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the U.S. Department of Justice in a 5-4 split in a separate but related case, but largely on the issue of jurisdiction, saying that the suit, filed in Washington, D.C., was filed in the wrong court, as that suit pertained to people being held in Texas. In that same order, the Supreme Court did rule, however, that people subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act were entitled to legal protections and the right to fight their detention in court. "The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs," the court said. The ACLU's lawsuit in Colorado was filed on behalf of two detainees at the Aurora ICE facility, "and persons similarly situated." The people being held in Colorado, the ACLU argues, are "identical, save for the District, to the class protected by the Temporary Restraining Orders issued" in the New York case. It comes after reporting by CBS News and other organizations revealed the Trump administration has deported hundreds of people with no apparent criminal record to El Salvador to be held in a maximum-security prison designed to hold terrorism suspects. Some of those people, such as gay makeup artist Andry Hernandez Romero , had pending asylum cases in the U.S. Several other high-profile cases of deportations from elsewhere in the U.S. have raised questions about the reasons for those people's detention and claims by administration officials about those detainees' gang affiliations. A spokesman for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday's ruling.
